Kent Whealy Memorial Seed Collection

Pictured above: Doug Gosling, Mother Garden Biodiversity Program Director, in the OAEC seed vault with the new Kent Whealy dedication plaque.  It is our great pleasure to announce the dedication and naming of the OAEC seed collection after seed preservation visionary and mentor, Kent Whealy.  Kent Whealy recognized in the 1970’s that the collapse of […]

Congratulations Doug for 30 years at the Food Bank Garden!

For over 2 decades, OAEC has had a deep collaboration with Food For Thought (FFT), a food bank in Forestville that serves over 700 clients living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses. After many years of volunteering with FFT, Doug Gosling, OAEC’s Mother Garden Biodiversity Program Director, helped to establish the garden there in 1999 and […]

OAEC at Bioneers

Join us at the Bioneers Conference – Oct 19th – 20th At the upcoming Bioneers Conference, OAEC’s Program Manager Cooper Freeman will discuss the evolutionary wheat breeding project he is leading on the panel: Evolutionary Plant Breeding: Breeding Crops for Climate Change, with project partner Leonard Diggs from Santa Rosa Junior College Shone Farm and journalist Mark […]

Nursery – only a few weeks left in the season!

Above: Of the two species of Patchouli grown for it’s essential oils, Java Patchouli is more common to find in cultivation and can be grown as a beautiful container plant, as a fast growing annual or as a perennial in the greenhouse. Patchouli was used during the silk trade to keep moths from laying their eggs […]

OAEC Nursery joins Fibershed

The OAEC Nursery is a new member of Fibershed, a consortium of growers, ranchers, artisans, and retailers working to create a culturally, socially, economically and ecologically viable local textile industry.  Fibershed encourages the revival of local fiber systems through research, education and expanding markets for regenerative textile manufacturing from soil-to-soil. The OAEC Nursery is helping […]

The climate is changing and so is the OAEC Nursery

The OAEC non-profit nursery is the outward face of our 45-year-old esteemed Mother Garden and represents an outreach into the community from the experience, work and wisdom we’ve gained by working the land in the same place since 1974. The climate is changing and so is the OAEC Nursery! When we produced our first Plant […]

CCOF cost share program

This year the OAEC nursery and gardens were able to waive 75% of our organic certification fees through the Federal Organic Cost Share program. Why is Cost Share Important? Historically, farm bill funding has not been as generous to organic producers as it has for conventional. Cost share is one of the few programs offered specifically to support […]

Wheat Breeding Experiment for Climate Adaptation

What will the climate be like 20 years from now?   How can we breed food crops that will thrive and adapt to change?    With an increasingly unstable climate and a continued collapse of agricultural biodiversity, OAEC is mixing and planting together over 2,000 varieties of bread wheat from all over the world, in […]

Fall Plant Sale Aug 19-20 & 26-27

Fall Crops Plant Sale, Art Show & Garden Tours August 19 – 20 & August 26 – 27 Sat & Sun, 10am – 5pm Join us for the Member Preview – August 18th, 4-6pm – a small, intimate opportunity to mingle with staff and avoid the plant sale crowds.  Get first pick of our selection by donating $50 annually to OAEC and receive a […]

Time for Spring planting!

April is coming!  Join us at the OAEC Nursery! Spring Crops Plant Sale Event April 1-2 & April 8-9, 10am-5pm Friends of the Nursery* preview March 31, 4-6pm Summer Crops Plant Sale Event April 22-23 & April 29-30, 10am-5pm Friends of the Nursery* preview April 21, 4-6pm Tours on Sundays (April 2, 9, 23 & 30) at 1pm. See […]